Ex-deputy, 63, wards off attack at store

WOMAN ELBOWS, PINS ASSAILANT AGAINST CAR

By Elise Franco

efranco@vindy.com

Austintown

Though she was in pain and on the brink of losing consciousness, a 63-year-old township woman fought off the man she thought was going to kill her.

Dorothy Frazzini said she was attacked from behind by a man identified as David Hughes, 55, of Youngstown, in the parking lot of Dollar General on South Raccoon Road about 3 p.m. April 26 as she was getting into her car.

Frazzini, a former Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputy, said she was approached by a man as she left the Dollar General. The man asked her where he could find a necklace for his wife.

Frazzini, who worked for the sheriff’s department for 25 years — first in the jail and later serving warrants and transporting prisoners — said she suggested he check inside the store and continued getting into her car.

A few seconds later she said she was fighting for her life as the man slipped a pair of nylon pantyhose around her throat and began to choke her.

“I saw a man’s right hand going around my neck, and I almost totally passed out,” she said.

Frazzini said Hughes pulled the pantyhose so tightly that she knew he would kill her if she didn’t take action.

She said she elbowed him in the chest, which loosened the nylons enough for her to slip her hands in between the restraint and her throat.

“I think my training just automatically kicked in at that point, and I turned around and pinned him,” she said. “Even though I was hurting while holding him against the car, I was just determined that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone else.”

Frazzini was able to pin Hughes against her car for about two minutes, until officers arrived.

Police formally charged Hughes on Wednesday with felonious assault and aggravated menacing.

Police said they had to discuss with the county prosecutor’s office the exact charges to be brought against him. That explains the delay between the charges being filed and Hughes’ arrest.

Hughes is in the county jail and is scheduled for arraignment at 1 p.m. Monday in Mahoning County Area Court here.

Austintown Detective Sgt. Kathy Dina said Hughes told her during police interviews that he had Parkinson’s disease and wasn’t taking a prescribed medication, causing him to hallucinate.

Dina said Hughes said he knew what happened was wrong. The detective said Hughes claims he found the pantyhose in his car but couldn’t remember why he had them before the attack.

“He states he doesn’t know why he did it,” she said.

Frazzini said more than two decades in law enforcement taught her the skills she needed to fight off her attacker.

“During my job in the jail, we were jumped many times a day,” she said. “Between that and the police academy, I know it helped me save my own life.”

Still shaken by the attack, Frazzini said she’s glad it didn’t happen to someone else — and she’s glad it happened then. She said several months ago she was sick and would have been helpless.

“I would rather this happen to me than to someone else, like my mother, or another elderly person,” she said. “But five or six months ago I was weak and had pneumonia. I would have been dead.”